The rehabilitation of the Tororo-Mbale to Soroti highway has finally kicked off 12 after stalling for over a year. The Rehabilitation of the more than 100 Kilometer stretch kicked off this month. Dan Alinange, spokesman Uganda National Road Authority public relations officer says DOTTS Services has been awarded the work contract.
Alinange explains that the work that should have started in February last year delayed due to the review on the road design, which was completed early this month. He says that the new design the road construction works will cost shillings 130 billion. Alinange says that the new road design includes stage rehabilitation that requires widening of the road to accommodate the busy traffic, putting of a new layer and rehabilitating major bridges along the road.
Alinange says after the completion of work on the Soroti-Lira road, traffic especially heavy trucks heading to Sudan were attracted to the Tororo-Mbale to Soroti stretch which was already in a very poor state. Farah Faisal, a conductor of Gateway Bus Services says they are happy that at last government has positively responded to their pleas. He says the poor state of the road was the major cause of the accidents along the stretch.
He is also optimistic that once completed they will spend little time traveling from Mbale to Soroti and therefore cutting cost on fuel. Currently because of the poor state of the road, traveling from Mbale to Soroti takes approximately 2 ½ -3 hours. Alinange says that government’s dream is to have a total reconstruction and widening of the road by the next five years.
